On Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 7:47:58 AM UTC-5, Andrew Sutherland wrote: > The problem with Thunderbird is not that it is a mail user agent or that > user agency in messaging is unimportant. The problem is that > Thunderbird has had a serious technical debt problem since the day its > code-base transitioned from Netscape. Its low-level integration with > Gecko has been a maintenance burden for Thunderbird developers and
To deal with this technical debt, I propose Mozilla fund a "skunkworks" team of seven people for a year to create a new server version of Thunderbird (called "Thunderbird Server") that runs initially as a Node.js app providing a single-page JavaScript/TypeScript webapp for email handling and other peer-to-peer communications using local storage. Thunderbird Server would assume Firefox as its primary client; Firefox would access Thunderbird Server just like any other (local) web server using web standards. The most significant Thunderbird Desktop plugins (based on downloads or other metrics) would be ported by the team to this new Thunderbird Server platform (ideally, aided by a custom tool for such porting). This Thunderbird Server platform would, through plugins, eventually become a social semantic desktop that would change the nature of the web as we know it. This is a feasible way to deal with the technical debt Andrew talks about while still being true to the idea of distributed data and peer-to-peer communications which is at the core of the Thunderbird vision. Sadly, Thunderbird Desktop itself would then be left to technical bankruptcy (or self-serve fixes) once the Thunderbird Server version proved stable and popular and the migration path was clear and easy. However, Firefox itself might benefit a lot from this effort via indirect means as it grew to meet new challenges posed by an expanding Thunderbird Server platform. I'd be happy to either help lead such a Thunderbird Server project myself or just help out with it full-time under another developer's leadership. I just applied as a "Mozilla Growth Engineer" suggesting something in this direction. At the link below is a manifesto I just wrote today about this idea with more detail on such a plan and a lot more reasons as to why Mozilla should fund this effort. But in short, the big issue here is, as Andrew points out, not messaging. The deeper issues is local data and peer-to-peer communications versus central data and client-to-shared-server communications and related privacy, security, and reliability concerns. Mark Surman said the Mozilla Foundation offered a modest amount of money to pay for contractors to help develop options for the technical future of Thunderbird. In a couple of months, building on the FOSS system I've already written called NarraFirma, I'm confident could produce a proof of concept of this Thunderbird Server idea even just working by myself. You can find the "ThunderbirdS are Grow!" manifesto here: http://pdfernhout.net/thunderbirds-are-grow-manifesto.html --Paul Fernhout http://www.pdfernhout.net/ ==== The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity. _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
